Actor Robert De Niro has been outspoken about his hatred for President Donald Trump. He was vocal about his opposition to Trump when he ran back in 2016 and has been even more outspoken this time around. In fact, he's made numerous appearances on CNN to talk about the president.
De Niro looked through the crowded field of 2020 Democrats and decided South Bend, Indiana Mayor Pete Buttigieg is the best hope to take on Trump and beat him in the general election.
He explained his thought process during an interview with the Daily Beast:
So who do you think beats Trump in 2020?
I don’t know. I like Buttigieg. Biden could get us into calmer waters, that would be a good thing. He means well, and to me, he’s a guy who would do the right thing, make the right decision. But Buttigieg I like a lot. He’s got all the credentials—Rhodes Scholar, Afghanistan veteran—even though he’s young, and if he could get a chance it could be something special, I think. As a gay person, he’s someone who comes from a marginalized community, so people from other ethnic groups can identify with him, even if they’re not gay, because they know what it’s like. I think he’s the best for what we need now. I have friends who really like him a lot, as I do. With Obama, he had the middle name “Hussein” and a lot of things that people tried to use against him—including Trump with the whole stupid “birther” thing—and he went right through it. It could happen with Buttigieg. And there’s Bloomberg.
Translation: Buttigieg checks off a lot of boxes that people like Sanders and Biden don't.
He's gay. Check.
He's a veteran. Check.
He's a Rhodes Scholar. Check.
He's a millennial. Check.
The only boxes Buttigieg doesn't check: he's not a woman of color.
Democrats have realized they need their candidate to reflect the diversity they say their party has. If you look at the field of candidates vying for the nomination, it's not very diverse at all. It's made up of mostly old, white men, you know, what they accuse the Republican Party of being.
Just last week during the debate Biden claimed he came from the black community and had the support of the only black woman elected to the Senate (when he really meant the first woman). Buttigieg hammered on about what it's like to be gay. Klobuchar continually ran with the woman card. And Harris thinks she's Obama and can rebuild the Obama coalition despite her abysmal polling, even in her home state of California.
But hey, maybe Buttigieg can get the Democrats closer to their "diversity goal."